Milk bank set to grow next year as need to help at-risk newborns grows
Credit to Author: Matt Robinson| Date: Sun, 29 Dec 2019 22:58:49 +0000
The Provincial Milk Bank is seeking to expand its operations next year to help feed at-risk newborns around the province who are in need of milk.
Earlier this year a pair of new milk depots opened in Kelowna and Kamloops, helping to bring the total amount of donor milk processed by the milk bank to 2,800 litres in 2019. Now the milk bank is slated for an increase in space and equipment to help meet the need across B.C., said Kristen Ruddick, the director of the maternal newborn program at B.C. Women’s Hospital.
At the moment the milk bank’s supplies are in decent shape, but because demand is high and milk is constantly put to use across the province, things “can shift quickly,” Ruddick said.
Pasteurized donor milk, packed with antibodies to fight infection and disease, is the best substitute for premature or sick infants when their mother’s own milk is not available, said Kirsten Veldman, a registered nurse.
“Our milk, in patient use, primarily is in the NICU, the neonatal intensive care unit,” Veldman said.
“It is our hope that as we go forward from here that any baby in a NICU will have the same opportunity for pasteurized donor milk, if they meet the criteria, regardless of where they live in the province of B.C.”
As of now, donor milk is available for use in hospitals in Chilliwack, Langley, North Vancouver, Nanaimo, Richmond, Maple Ridge, New Westminster, Vancouver, Surrey, Prince George and Victoria.
Veldman said new milk donors are always needed and women interested in giving are encouraged to contact the milk bank. Donors are pre-screened before they donate and they must confirm through an interview that they are in good health, medication and supplement-free, and willing to undergo blood testing.
“We wouldn’t have a milk bank if it wasn’t for the generous women of the province who give their extra milk and their extra time to go through the screening process,” Veldman said. “We are incredibly grateful for (them).”
There are now 28 milk depots around the province where screened-in donors can drop off raw, frozen milk. That milk is then transported to the milk bank, heat treated, tested and distributed to hospitals, according to a recent news release from Interior Health and B.C. Women’s Hospital.
The milk bank has processed some 60,000 litres of donor milk over the past 45 years.